


Red Ledgers

by zayndehaan



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, M/M, Movie Reference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-30
Updated: 2012-10-30
Packaged: 2017-11-17 09:07:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/549926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zayndehaan/pseuds/zayndehaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>High school AU where there are no werewolves or supernatural beings in Beacon Hills at all, and the pack is just a bunch of ridiculously attractive friends. Danny and Jackson go see The Avengers. 
</p><p>Written for Tyler's birthday! Happy birthday, dear. Hope this half of your present is all right.
</p><p>Also this was written this morning, so if there are mistakes it's because the fic hasn't been beta'd. (Also minor references to Sterek.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Ledgers

Jackson has one real friend, one person he can rely on in any scenario or any circumstances, and that's it. It's not that he doesn't know people; he knows tons of people. He drives a Porsche, and he's co-captain of the fucking lacrosse team (which is a big fucking deal for some reason.) It's just that he knows that if he went bankrupt, or failed all his classes, or his house got hit by an earthquake and he became comatose for months, he knows one person that for sure would be at his bedside.

And that person is Danny Mahealani.

Not Lydia, his ex-girlfriend. Not Scott, his co-captain who is definitely on steroids. Not Isaac, the creepy kid that lives across the street with permanent bags under his eyes, or Allison, even though she seems to like him a little for some reason. His parents-- his  _foster_ parents, that is-- don't even make the list of potentials.

But Danny is there for him, and always has been, since they were kids. And that fact means that Danny is the only person he can really trust. 

This very morning, Jackson hadn't doubted that that would be changing any time soon.

Now he can't bring himself to look Danny straight in the eyes.

"Have you gone to see the Avengers yet?" Danny repeats his question.

"Um," Jackson stalls, and then shakes his head, an easy lie slipping out. "No. I'm not a nerd."

Danny rolls his head around to meet Jackson's stare with a blank, disbelieving frown and one raised eyebrow. "But you own Captain America, and Iron Man, and Iron Man 2, and Thor, and, like, every single copy of the Hulk. On Blu-ray."

Jackson hisses back, "Shut up, okay? I don't want people to..."

"Know?" Now the look he's receiving is sassier than anything he's ever experienced from Danny before.  _Wow_ , he's been working on his bitch face. "Jackson. It's the third highest grossing movie of all time. Literally everyone has seen it."

Jackson makes a muted noise, and then breathes out before admitting, "Yeah, I went to see it." At the midnight premiere, he adds silently. And then five times after that. There are certain advantages to being rich, after all.

"I haven't," Danny confesses, sticking his chin out and staring into Jackson's eyes. "And I want to. So you up to go see it again?"

"Yes," Jackson answers before the question is done. "Yeah, let's do it."

Danny gives him a calculating stare for a moment, and then graces him with a full Mahealani smile. "All right, dude. You free after school today?"

"Should be," Jackson nods, mentally penciling out his study date with Lydia. "Just... don't tell Stilinski or anyone like that, Dan. My reputation in this school will actually die if anyone finds out I've seen the Avengers."  
Danny rolls his eyes over-dramatically and sighs, leaning on his locker. "Your reputation is safe with me."

Jackson smiles genuinely at Danny, and then winks, turning away and walking to his next class. "Text me," he yells over his shoulder, and he doesn't have to look back to know that Danny heard him.

 

_-_

 

"So I heard you're gonna go see the Avengers with Danny and I was wondering if Scott and I could come," the voice of Stiles Stilinski says in one long breath from behind him.

Jackson grits his teeth, and then whips around, staring Stiles down. "Did Danny tell you that?"

"Allison did," Stiles says with a perky grin, apparently not fazed by Jackson's glaring at all. "Oh, and Scott wants to bring Allison too. And Allison wants to bring Lydia, which I know will suck for you, but you're gonna have to deal. And I want to bring Derek-- but Danny still thinks Derek is my cousin named Miguel, so somebody's gonna have to explain that to him before he sees us making out in the theater to the sweet sounds of Joss Whedon and thinks we have some inces--"

"Stop," Jackson finally manages to interrupt, wondering if the other teenager has taken his pills today. "Yes, you can come. But you're not sitting in the same row as us."  
Stiles scoffs. "Yeah, we are."

Jackson gives up, throwing his hands up in the air and turning back to his lacrosse bag. Doesn't anyone care about his status as "Not A Nerd" anymore?

"No," Stiles snorts, and Jackson realizes he's voiced the question to Stiles aloud. "You were totally always a nerd. Don't even try to deny it. Haven't you got, like, two Valve posters in your games room?"

This is, for some reason, the last straw for Jackson (funny, he was sure he would have run out of straws about a minute ago), and he returns to glaring at Stiles with an intensity that would make most freshmen shrivel up and die on the spot. "Stilinski, when have you  _ever_ been to my house?"

The glare finally seems to kick in, and Stiles gulps. "I... haven't?" he manages to stammer out, before turning around and evaporating elsewhere, probably off to go tell Scott and the gang about how Jackson had said yes.

Jackson lets his head slam into the wall of gym lockers. This movie is sounding less and less fun by the instant.

Which is really saying something, because it is the fucking  _Avengers_ he's talking about.

 

-

 

Thinking back, he's having trouble remembering how he got here at all.

Danny is buying tickets for everyone, with his own credit card and a ridiculously large amount of cash unwittingly contributed by the Whittemores. Stiles and Derek are in the line-up for popcorn, and Scott, Allison, and Lydia are juggling sodas and candy bags. Boyd has also shown up, which means that Erica has shown up, which means that Isaac has shown up, and his movie date with Danny has quickly turned into a ten-person party.

Jackson slumps back against the Men in Black 3 poster behind him, and watches the proceedings in front of him with a removed interest. That in itself doesn't last long, as Danny comes over to him, carrying a wad of tickets with a huge grin on his face.

"Having fun?" he asks, and Jackson smiles. If anyone but Danny had planned this... well, suffice it to say that Jackson would not be smiling, at the least.

"No," he answers honestly, and Danny laughs.

"I just thought it would be nice if you had someone to go with the seventh time," the Hawaiian teenager replies, and Jackson nods before he comprehends the words, and then he starts, standing up straight and eyeing Danny suspiciously.

"You knew?"

"Duh," Danny answers, shrugging it off as nothing. "I found the ticket stubs in your locker, and I thought it was really sad that you went alone when you had so many friends you could have gone with."

Danny's always been like this, as long as Jackson can remember. He'll talk about the shallowest, most blase things, and then right when you're not expecting it he'll throw you a curveball that knocks you onto your back and sets your head spinning. He's ridiculously open about things too, and at the same time ridiculously closed-off about things. While, admittedly, being an enigma that Jackson has had time to study for years and years, he is still an enigma in a lot of ways.

Instead of voicing his strangely deep thoughts to Danny, Jackson takes the easy way out, rolling his eyes. "These people aren't my friends. I don't even... they don't even like me," he says, and  _whoa,_ that was  _not_ what he meant to say.

Danny raises one eyebrow, and then replies fluidly, "Jackson, they all helped me organize this for you." He calls out to the group, and everyone turns to look at them, smiling faces and bright eyes. 

Jackson feels a little overwhelmed and can't really explain why, so he just turns to Danny again and whispers in a soft, intimate voice reserved only for the two of them, "Thanks, Dan."

Danny smiles, and Jackson can swear that Danny's gaze flickers down to his lips for a moment, which is not new per se but hasn't happened in years. Before Jackson can question it, however, the Hawaiian moves away to go help Derek carry the popcorn, and Jackson is left wondering (for not the first time) how the  _fuck_ he made the acquaintance and friendship of someone as perfect as Danny.

Then Danny's words repeat themselves in his ear, and he reminds himself that his friends are apparently waiting to go see his favorite movie since _Batman Begins_ , and he's invited. He pushes himself up off the wall, and walks over to the group, sliding into the conversation as casually as possible.

"So your name's not Miguel?" Danny says with honest confusion, and everyone laughs, including Danny and Jackson.

"No," Derek replies, a small smile appearing on his lips. "And I'm not Stiles's cousin, so there's no need to worry." His arm around the teenager's waist shifts slightly, pulling Stiles closer to him, and Lydia and Allison let out a synchronized "aww".

"Cool," Danny says, laughing slightly, and then claps as if he's just remembered something. "Oh yeah, guys, the cat's out of the bag. I told Jackson we all know about his obsession with the Avengers."

Erica piped up, "I don't blame you, dude. RDJ is hot."

"I think you mean Jeremy Renner," Isaac corrects her unexpectedly, causing the group to turn to him.

There is about a minute of silence, before everyone starts yelling out names over each other.

"No way! Scarlett Johansson!" Stiles insists to Derek.

"Oh, please," the Hale snorts. "Have you  _seen_ Mark Ruffalo?"

"Chris Hemsworth," Danny cuts in.

Lydia shakes her head. "Uh, Chris  _Evans_!"

Boyd adds, raising a hand, "But  _Cobie Smulders_."

"Hey," Jackson says, finally shaking out a last laugh before speaking up. "Hey!"

His friends turn to him.

He raises his eyebrows, giving the group the most judgemental look possible. "You have all forgotten..." He takes a pause for dramatic effect, and then concludes, " _Tom Hiddleston_."

Everyone is silent for about a second, and then bursts into laughter. "No way, Jackson," Isaac choruses, and Derek adds, "Absolutely no way." Danny reaches over and squeezes his hand slightly, and Jackson looks over, meeting his gaze and smiling widely.

This time, his eyes look down at Danny's lips before Danny pulls away with a soft smile that's full of promise.

"Oh, shit, it's 6:08," Erica says, and Jackson nods at her in agreement.

"Yeah, if we want good seats we should probably go in now."

Everyone acquiesces, and follows Jackson and Danny into the theater.

 

-

 

"Hey," Jackson hears Danny whisper to him. He turns towards the source of the soft, familiar voice, and sees Danny smiling. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Jackson says, smirking. "You?"

"I have actually seen this before," Danny confesses quietly with a grin. "I just lied to get you to come here."

"It worked," Jackson answers, and then it hits him that he is flirting with Danny Mahealani, and that, for some reason, it's both easier and more enjoyable than flirting with Lydia or Allison or anyone else he's ever tried it on.

"I hoped it would," Danny says, and he is interrupted by Loki's voice echoing from the theater speakers. 

"Your world in the balance and you bargain for one man?"

Jackson blinks slightly, and lets his gaze travel down to Danny's lips. They had tried kissing, once, when Danny was 13 and Jackson 14. It had been quick, and it hadn't been the best kiss Jackson had ever had. Or anything close, if he's being honest-- it had been their first kiss and thus came associated with both embarrassing and fantastic memories.

But in this moment, Jackson knows he wants to try it again.

"Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian... or was," Natasha says, causing a laugh from people around them in the theater. Neither Danny nor Jackson breaks eye contact, however, and they both continue moving closer to one another, atom by atom. Jackson reaches up from the armrest and lets his hand fall on Danny's cheek, and Danny breathes in slightly with apprehension and excitement. They move closer and closer, and Jackson feels like they're still going at a glacial pace, annoyance and desperation stirring within his chest.

"What is it you want?" They're so close now that Jackson can see every detail in Danny's eyes, and every emotion on his face. He's more open to Jackson now than he ever has been before, and Jackson feels like he knows Danny, more intimately than anyone ever has before.

"It's really not that complicated. I've got re--" Natasha's voice fades in Jackson's ears as Danny closes the distance between them, his hands suddenly at the back of Jackson's neck and on his shoulder. It's a chaste kiss, as kisses go, and it is about a million times better than the last time they did it. Jackson feels light-headed as he pulls back for a moment to breathe, and then he leans forward and kisses Danny once more.

The second kiss is less life-changing and feels less like Jackson is drowning, but is more heated and passionate. Jackson feels Danny's hand on the back of his head pull him even closer, and their kiss gets a little hot as Jackson feels himself getting breathless once more.

Eventually, Danny makes a quiet noise, and Jackson pulls back with a questioning expression. "What's wrong?"

"We're in a  _movie theater_ ," Danny whispers with a grin, and Jackson grins back, murmuring, "I'm  _aware_."

Danny rolls his eyes and laughs quietly, before pulling Jackson's hand around his shoulders and then settling back into his seat, the smile on his face promising a continuation of the kissing later. Jackson pretends to grumble, and settles back into his seat, a huge smile on his face.

On screen, Loki is speaking as though nothing has happened. "You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away! No, I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you! Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear! And when he wakes, he'll have just enough time to see the work he's done, and when he screams, I'll break his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!" Loki reaches up and slams his fist against the glass, and as the noise echoes throughout the theater Jackson hears several gasps from around him. He can't help but smirk, in too good a mood to be affected by this scene for a seventh time.

"You're a monster!" Natasha chokes out, and Jackson turns to Danny, and they mouth in unison with Tom Hiddleston, "No, you brought the monster," and then smile at each other.

Jackson feels somebody tapping his shoulder, and turns to his other side, seeing Scott smiling at him brightly. He glances down the aisle for confirmation, and sees that Stiles, Boyd, Lydia, and Allison are all smiling at him and Danny similarly. Derek, Erica, and Isaac are watching the movie, oblivious to the scene unfolding a few seats away from them.

Jackson attempts to force down his smile, but the smiles of the group appear to be infectious, and so he just gives up and goes back to watching Scarlett Johansson be a total bad-ass.

Okay, maybe he needs to make a couple changes to the list of people he can really trust. 

But Danny is still invariably at the top.


End file.
